You wouldn’t walk around with dirty glasses, why would you walk around with dirty hearing aids?

Maintenance

Proper care and cleaning of your hearing aid is very important to ensure that your hearing aid is always functioning optimally. There are two key things to remember when you clean your hearing aid. First, you should never use liquids to clean your hearing aid. Using liquids on your hearing aid could lead to battery corrosion or cause the electrical components inside your hearing aid to stop working. Second, you should clean your hearing aid every morning before you put it in for the day. Waiting until the morning gives any excess earwax time to dry. If you clean your hearing aid while the ear wax is still soft, it can be more difficult to clean. Some styles of hearing aids have removable earmolds. These may be cleaned with soap and water but should be completely dry before being reattached to the hearing aid. Our staff will demonstrate how to properly care for and clean your earmold and hearing aid during your fitting appointment.

Cleaning brush – At your hearing aid fitting appointment, you will receive a cleaning brush for your hearing aids. This tool typically contains a brush at one end and a metal loop at the other end. The brush may be used to clean the earmold or dome, depending on what style of hearing aid you have. The metal loop can be used to clean larger amounts of earwax off of your aid, earmold, or dome.

Wax Filters/Guards – Your hearing aids may contain wax filters or wax traps to prevent ear wax from clogging the hearing aid vents. These are changeable and should be changed approximately every 3 to 6 months or sooner depending on how much earwax you produce. If your hearing aid suddenly sounds quieter or doesn’t produce any sound, a clogged wax filter may be the culprit. If that’s the case, it’s a quick and easy fix. Our staff will demonstrate how to change your wax filters.

Domes – Your hearing aids may have domes instead of earmolds. Domes are the clear plastic inserts that are placed on the tip of the receiver for Receiver-in-the-Ear (RIC) style hearing aid. Because the dome is placed inside of the ear canal, it may easily get clogged with ear wax, and may require frequent changing. Our staff will demonstrate how to change your domes and recommend how often they should be changed. Should you be running low on extra domes, contact us at 907-789-6780 to get more.

Hearing Aid Clean and Check

You can schedule a quick appointment with us to have your hearing aids cleaned and checked – in fact we encourage it! We typically recommend that you schedule a clean and check at least once a year to help ensure maximum life out of your hearing aid. During this appointment we will take a look at your hearing aids, give them a thorough cleaning, and listen to them to ensure that they are working properly. If we find a problem with one of your hearing aids we’ll either fix it in the office or send it to the manufacturer for repair. We can also perform adjustments to the sound quality of your hearing aids or your program options. Just tell our team at Northland Audiology what you need and we’ll take care of it for you!

Hearing Aid Drop-off / Mail-in Services and Repairs

At Northland Audiology we specialize in caring for your hearing aids. We provide a variety of services and repairs both inside and outside of our offices.

If you feel like something isn’t quite right with your hearing aids, give us a call to see if we can provide some troubleshooting assistance over the phone. Our staff is here to help you Monday thru Friday from 8:00am to 5:00pm. If troubleshooting over the phone doesn’t do the trick, feel free to swing by our Juneau location to drop-off your aids or mail them to our Juneau location. Once our staff takes a look at your aids, we will give you a call to let you know whether or not the issue could be resolved, or if we believe one or both aids should be sent into the manufacturer for further repair. If your aids need to be sent to the manufacturer, we’ll give you a call when they’re ready for pick-up or ready to be sent back to you in the mail.

Manufacturer Warranty

Your hearing aids are covered by at least a one year manufacturer’s warranty. The length of the warranty varies by manufacturer and hearing aid model. This means, if something in your hearing aid breaks before your warranty expires, we can send your hearing aid to the manufacturer for repair, typically free of charge. About 2 months before your warranty the end of your warranty period, our staff will contact you to let you know that your warranty is about to expire. They will also review the extended warranty options that are available for your specific aids.

Once your warranty expires, your hearing aid can still be repaired, but it may cost money to do so. Hearing aids also come with a loss and damage warranty. If you lose or damage your hearing aids while they are still under warranty, they can be replaced one time.